History VideoGame / StrikeSeries

** For some reason the AH-64 Apache in the first game appears to have the tail section of an RAH-66 Comanche. The main differences are the ducted rotor (Apache has an open one) and the tail wings being above the rotor (they are below it on the Apache).

* ''Urban Strike'' starts with a mission in a jungle.

* NonIndicativeName: ''Jungle Strike'' starts with a mission in a city, and ''Urban Strike'' starts with a mission in a jungle.

* JustPlaneWrong: The final mission of ''Desert Strike'' features a C-5 Galaxy cargo plane as a "nuclear bomber".

* AceCustom: Vila, a [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Romanian warlord goth dominatrix]] in ''Soviet Strike'' pilots herself a customised battle tank with loads of extra armor and a black and red paintjob called the "Black Widow". Her archenemy, Dr Ukrainian, and his bodyguards pilot the same tank but with a light gray paintjob.

* CrimefightingWithCash: The Russian mob in ''Soviet Strike'' during the Moscow mission can be swayed to your side by "buying" them with crates of gold, diamonds... And high-end [=TVs=] and genuine blue jeans

* DarkerAndEdgier: The Fifth Generation versions. To give an idea, one mission takes place in Transylvania (but inspired by Chernobyl) where you have to kill a Romanian Gulag dominatrix (yes, you read that right) who had grown to become a ruling guerrilla leader in charge of a nation, apparently powerful enough to make a play for the reactor to use the nuclear materials to launch rockets over Europe.

** Soviet Strike has you escorting President Boris Yeltsin, protecting him from coup forces while he drives around Moscow in his private car. Yeltsin "hasn't driven in thirty years" and [[DrivesLikeCrazy it shows]]. Also, he just ''has'' to stop at the local burger joint that some of the coup forces also happen to be dining at. And he's enjoying every second of the ride even as tanks and gunships try to blast him.

* MadScientist: Dr Ukrainian in ''Soviet Strike'' is obsessed with the idea of curing the radiation poisoning in Transylvania, to the point that he has his private army kidnap local citizens and [=UN=] peacekeepers to experiment on them. It's implied he did find a cure, as Ivan Uralia was one of his patients and severely irradiated.

* {{Qurac}}: The actual country involved in ''Desert Strike'' is never named. In game the flag is definitely the Iraqi flag, with only the colored stripes.

* TheUnreveal: ''Soviet Strike'' never gives a clear answer to the actual identity of the Shadowman. There is even a fan theory he is in reality Nick Arnold, one of your copilots, due to similar speech patterns and how conveniently Arnold being out of action on your side lines up with the Shadowman being active.
* UpToEleven: The final mission in ''Soviet Strike''. Saving the Russian government (including Boris Yeltsin) from a [[RenegadeRussian rogue Russian army]] invading Moscow? Plausible. Kidnapping and interrogating a Russian mob boss by dropping him in the bear pit of the local zoo? Silly but okay. Destroying Lenin's Mausoleum to reveal the secret entrance of the BigBad's hideout? No way. [[spoiler: Razing ''the whole Red Square'' as every landmark on it is actually hiding nuclear missiles ?]] This trope.

* SideQuest: You're given bonus points for going above and beyond the mission parameters. If your mission is to take out a power station, take out the electrical towers with it; if you only need to capture one enemy commander to fulfill your objective, get the other three anyway; and so on. ''Desert Strike'', in particular, has an unadvertised mission to locate and rescue the MIA co-pilot during the second campaign.

* SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome: In ''Nuclear Strike'', Nick Arnold is killed during the first mission where, after you rescue Nick, you are reported that Nick's dead and the BigBad taunts you with a video of Nick being mauled by a tiger.
** And in the prologue to ''Urban Strike'' Tony Barnes (a.k.a. "Agent Ego"), a former pilot of ''Jungle Strike'' and a spy for the Strike C.O.R.E., is killed off by a car bomb after giving a report that H. R. Malone is constructing a superweapon to destabilize the U.S. government.

** ''Soviet'' Strike had a shadowy character only known as the "Security Czar" running STRIKE, who at the end threatens Yeltsin into allowing STRIKE to act freely within Russia. In ''Nuclear Strike'' this sinister conspiracy overtone is gone, along with the entire character of Security Czar.

** Soviet Strike had a shadowy character only known as the "Security Czar" running STRIKE, who at the end threatens Yeltsin into allowing STRIKE to act freely within Russia. In Nuclear Strike this sinister conspiracy overtone is gone, along with the entire character of Security Czar. Amad and Ivan Uralia are also gone in Nuclear Strike despite being STRIKE members and Nuclear Strike also turns into a BlackAndWhiteMorality story with clear cut good guy versus bad guy.

* TheFaceless: Shadowman always appears filmed by a thermal camera, making his face impossible to see expect for his glasses and mouth when he speaks.

* WesternTerrorists: Beauford Lemonde, the BigBad of Nuclear Strike, is an ex CIA agent turned warlord who sparks chaos from the Indochina to Korea, with the final goal of [[OmnicidalManiac launching nuclear missile into the atmosphere to destroy the atmosphere's ozone layer itself]] [[ForTheEvulz for basically no reason other than he can.]]

* AwesomeMcCoolname: The pirate Octad leader Napoleon Hwong in Nuclear Strike's second mission.

* KarmicDeath: At the end of the final level in ''Nuclear Strike'', [[spoiler: the BigBad [=LeMonde=] is killed in an airstrike.]]

* NonStandardGameOver: Fail an objective and you'll be called back to base to get shouted at by a pixelly Stormin' Norman. In the fifth generation games, you can even go rogue and have your allies hunt you down if you refuse to return when ordered. Eventually they'll push the self-destruct button for, of all things, refueling too many times after you are recalled.

* WesternTerrorists: Beauford Lemonde, the BigBad of Nuclear Strike, is an ex CIA agent turned warlord who sparks chaos from the Indochina to Korea, with the final goal of [[OmnicidalManiac launching nuclear into the atmosphere to destroy the atmosphere's ozone layer itself]] [[ForTheEvulz for basically no reason other than he can.]]

* PasswordSave: For the all the games.

** In the same mission, the [=UN=] forces are duking it out with Ukrainian's men. You ''somehow'' can't damage them until you've dropped Ivan to take command of the [=UN=] forces.

* ''Jungle Strike'', which dealt with the son of Killbaba making negotiations with the notoriously dangerous Colombian drug dealer Carlos Ortega in South America after his initial assassination attempts on the President of the United States.

* ''Soviet Strike'', the first of two [=PS1=] games where the STRIKE organisation must take down a mysterious Russian terrorist called "The Shadowman" and his plans to bring back the glory of Soviet Russia through violence.

** Naja also counts in ''Nuclear Strike'' as the awesome rebel leader in the first mission, and your main copilot for most of it.

* AwesomeButImpractical: The sheer amount of vehicles you can commandeer in Nuclear Strike are mind-boggling. However, most of them have the debilitating quirk of not being able to pick up ammo, fuel, or even plot-important [=NPCs=], thereby making them very useless aside from being a glorified moving weapons platform. That said, if you do not need to pick up any [=NPCs=] and you just need to lay waste to everything in the shortest amount of time, these vehicles suddenly become very, very practical.

* ArtificialStupidity: In ''Soviet Strike'''s final level there's a possibility that you may get a SNAFU during the final mission seemingly out of nowhere. The reason for this is that due to an oversight the mobsters you can bribe to assist you aren't flagged to be non-hostile to the KGB boss, and the Zoo you dropped him off at earlier is close enough that they can fire at and potentially kill him. Mercifully, due to another oversight this does not make the game unwinnable; you won't have any dialogue to direct you, but completing the final objectives overrides the fail-conditions and allows you to see the ending regardless.

* BottomlessMagazines: ''Jungle Strike'' features an F-117 with literally infinite ammo. This was done because the game's mechanics weren't really designed to handle a constantly moving jet fighter. That, and the level has significantly less fuel and ammo pickups, so you will ''need'' to use the Stealth to stay afloat.

* CriticalExistenceFailure: Your chopper can be shot full of holes from all manner of rocket and AA gunfire, down to 5 remaining hitpoints and still keep fighting just as good as it does at 100% health, but one stray bullet from a soldier's rifle, and...

* DarkerAndEdgier: The [=PlayStation=] versions. To give an idea, one mission takes place in Transylvania (but inspired by Chernobyl) where you have to kill a Romanian Gulag dominatrix (yes, you read that right) who had grown to become a ruling guerrilla leader in charge of a nation,, apparently powerful enough to make a play for the reactor to use the nuclear materials to launch rockets over Europe.

* ElvisImpersonator: There are dancing Elvis impersonators inside the Las Vegas casino in Urban Strike. If you hang around one long enough, their dancing will generate an armor crate for you. This particular mission is ''extremely'' difficult because of how hard it is to avoid enemy fire while running around on foot, so these guys are crucial to your survival.

** The Washington D.C. level in ''Jungle Strike'' ends with you escorting the Presidential Motorcade back to the White House. It follows a specific route, and there are enemies waiting for it at almost every corner. The one saving grace about that is that the Motorcade won't advance unless you destroy the road blockade in front of it. This lets you go clear out the enemies first.

* {{FMV}}: The next generation titles were loaded with them. Mission briefings, intel and updates used live actors and stock footage, where enemy profiles usually used CG. All the relevant information can be read through as with the previous games, as well as political views and motivations of who you're fighting, with videos available with a button press.

* FoxChickenGrainPuzzle: An interesting take on this happens during Soviet Strike with Amad's family: his sister Delilah (The Fox), his uncle Nimrud (The Chicken), and his cousin Bessus (The Grain). If Nimrud's forces cross paths with either of the others, the two groups will fight. You also have to make sure they fight the right enemy units or else they will be obliterated. It also fits nicely with their personnalities: Delilah is cunning and sneaky, Nimrud is a hotheaded playboy, Bessus doesn't give a crap about the family feud and prefers to tend his farm. To hammer it home, Delilah and Bessus use respectively light tanks and [=APCs=] while Nimrud uses [=WW2=]-era heavy tanks and the enemies consist of a column of heavy tanks and a colum of light tanks.
* GoodGunsBadGuns: Played straight in all of the series where Apache is not only the cover helicopter but the hero helicopter, and then averted in Nuclear Strike where the helicopter you pilot in the last mission is the Mi-28 Havoc.

* HyperspaceArsenal: Averted in the first game, where the Apache's weapons load-out is 100% accurate. (Yes, it can actually carry 38 rockets, 8 missiles and 1200 20mm gun rounds at once.)

* InsurmountableWaistHeightFence: Your chopper can't change altitude, so you have to fly around two story buildings or mountains. Urban Strike has you flying over the fog of San Francisco, with the taller buildings and Golden Gate Bridge jutting above it. The Playstation games alter this slightly, having your helicopter constantly flying at a given altitude above the ground. You'll be shown flying up over hills and small buildings, but you still have to fly around larger geographic features and structures.

* MadScientist: Dr Ukrainian in ''Soviet Strike'' is obsessed with the idea of curing the radiation poisoning in Transylvania, to the point that he has his private army kidnap local citizens and [=UN=] peacekeepers to experiment on them. It's implied he did found a cure, as Ivan Uralia was one of his patients and severely irradiated.

* MuzzleFlashlight: Some of the night missions. A particularly infamous one in Jungle Strike has this as basically the only way to see your surroundings.
* NintendoHard: For starters, most of the time, you are a [[OneManArmy lone helicopter]] going against fully armed enemy battalion, and EasyLogistics is partially averted where you have to repair, resupply, and refuel in times. Also some mission lack sufficient intelligence, forcing you to search either ammo, armor, or fuel by yourself.
* NonStandardGameOver: Fail an objective and you'll be called back to base to get shouted at by a pixelly Stormin' Norman. In the [=PlayStation=] games, you can even go rogue and have your allies hunt you down if you refuse to return when ordered. Eventually they'll push the self-destruct button for, of all things, refueling too many times after you are recalled.

* PasswordSave: For the [=PS1=] games and ''Urban Strike''.

* TurnsRed: Inverted. At the start of each campaign, the enemy has various radars and electrical systems in operation which, while active, make their units target you faster, hit harder, and take more hits. Naturally, these radars/power plants will be among your first objectives to level the playing field.

** Soviet Strike had a shadowy character only known as the "Security Czar" running STRIKE, who at the end threatens Yeltsin into allowing STRIKE to act freely within Russia. In Nuclear Strike this sinister conspiracy overtone is gone, along with the entire character of Security Czar. Amad and Ivan Uralia are also gone in Nuclear Strike despite being STRIKE members, and Nuclear Strike also turns into a BlackAndWhiteMorality story with clear cut good guy versus bad guy.

* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: Jungle Strike's climactic mission is set in the dense Amazon, blowing up secret underground bases and fighting enemy Apache helicopters until you eventually capture the BigBadDuumvirate, and take them back to Washington DC to stand trial at the Supreme Court... and then the remains of the Drug Lord's army invade DC and busts them out, forcing you to evacuate the president, wipe out the enemy forces, and kill the two once and for all. However, only the Mad Man was killed after his escape vehicle was being destroyed by the player, but the Drug Lord himself was still at large.

* WeaponOfMassDestruction: Chemical, bio and nuke weapons in ''Desert Strike'', nukes in ''Jungle Strike'', super-lasers in ''Urban Strike'', nukes in ''Soviet Strike'' [[CaptainObvious and Nuclear Strike]]. Taken UpToEleven in the final mission of Nuclear Strike: [[spoiler:A pair of missiles named 'Shiva's Daggers' which will cause chain reaction to the earth's ozone layer, stripping it and exposing the earth to the sun's radiation in full, culminating with TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.]]

* WarriorPoet: Amad in ''Soviet Strike'' is an Iraqi-born former [[BritsWithBattleships SAS member]] who both speaks in a flowery manner and quotes various philosophical lines during your time with him.

* FoxChickenGrainPuzzle: An interesting take on this happens during Soviet Strike with Amad's family: his sister Delilah (The Fox), his "uncle" Nimrud (The Chicken), and his cousin Bessus (The Grain). If Nimrud's forces cross paths with either of the others, the two groups will fight. You also have to make sure they fight the right enemy units or else they will be obliterated. It also fits nicely with their personnalities: Delilah is cunning and sneaky, Nimrud is a hotheaded playboy, Bessus doesn't give a crap about the family feud and prefers to tend his farm. To hammer it home, Delilah and Bessus use respectively light tanks and [[=APCs=]] while Nimrud uses [[=WW2=]]-era heavy tanks and the enemies consist of a column of heavy tanks and a colum of light tanks.

* FoxChickenGrainPuzzle: An interesting take on this happens during Soviet Strike with Amad's family: his sister Delilah (The Fox), his "uncle" Nimrud (The Chicken), and his cousin Bessus (The Grain). If Nimrud's forces cross paths with either of the others, the two groups will fight. You also have to make sure they fight the right enemy units or else they will be obliterated. It also fits nicely with their personnalities: Delilah is cunning and sneaky, Nimrud is a hotheaded playboy, Bessus doesn't give a crap about the family feud and prefers to tend his farm. To hammer it home, Delilah and Bessus use respectively light tanks and [[APCs]] while Nimrud uses [[WW2]]-era heavy tanks and the enemies consist of a column of heavy tanks and a colum of light tanks.

* FoxChickenGrainPuzzle: An interesting take on this happens during Soviet Strike with Amad's family: Delilah (The Fox), Nimrud (The Chicken), and Bessus (The Grain). If Nimrud's forces cross paths with either of the others, the two groups will fight. You also have to make sure they fight the right enemy units or else they will be obliterated. It also fits nicely with their personnalities: Delilah is cunning and sneaky, Nimrud is a hotheaded playboy, Bessus doesn't give a crap about the family feud and prefers to tend his farm.

* CrimefightingWithCash: The Russian mob in ''Soviet Strike'' during the Moscow mission can be swayed to your side by "buying" them with crates of gold, diamonds... And high-end TVs and genuine blue jeans

* DefconFive: Averted in the final mission of ''Soviet Strike'', where Earle warns that Shadowman's coup succeeding means "the world is at DEFCON one!".

* MadScientist: Dr Ukrainian in ''Soviet Strike'' is obsessed with the idea of curing the radiation poisoning in Transylvania, to the point that he has his private army kidnap local citizens and [=UN=] peacekeepers to experiment on them. It's implied he did found a cure, as Ivan Uralia was one of his patients and sverely irradiated.

* ObviousBeta: Mission 4 of ''Soviet Strike'' climaxes in an EnemyCivilWar between Vila Ceausescu and Dr. Ukrainian. Or at least that's what was ''supposed'' to happen, as the final objective seems to have been rushed: Vila's tank is nigh-invulnerable, and while she one-shots several of Ukrainian's lesser goons on her way to fight him, she's incapable of harming him or the player. The player themselves can't hurt Ukrainian or his elite bodyguards, who don't move or react to being attacked by you or Vila in any way. The "recommended" way of completing this mission requires the player to wait for Vila to reach the graveyard (whereupon she endlessly and ineffectually fires at Ukrainian while he and his bodyguards stare off into space) and then drop a nearby tombstone on her. Trying to fight her "normally" will take your entire ammo reserves and then some. Somewhat lampshaded as Hack tells you that both Vila's and Ukrainian's tanks are custom models with ''lots'' of extra armor and that they don't care about you.

** Soviet Strike has you escorting President Boris Yeltsin, protecting him from coup forces while he drives around Moscow in his private car. Yeltsin "hasn't driven in thirty years" and [[DrivesLikeCrazy it shows]]. Also, he just ''has'' to stop at the local burger joint that some of the coup forces also happen to be dining at.

* FoxChickenGrainPuzzle: An interesting take on this happens during Soviet Strike with Amad's family: Delilah (The Fox), Nimrud (The Chicken), and Bessus (The Grain). If Nimrud's forces cross paths with either of the others, the two groups will fight. You also have to make sure they fight the right enemy units or else they will be obliterated.

* ObviousBeta: Mission 4 of ''Soviet Strike'' climaxes in an EnemyCivilWar between Vila Ceausescu and Dr. Ukrainian. Or at least that's what was ''supposed'' to happen, as the final objective seems to have been rushed: Vila's tank is nigh-invulnerable, and while she one-shots several of Ukrainian's lesser goons on her way to fight him, she's incapable of harming him or the player. The player themselves can't hurt Ukrainian or his elite bodyguards, who don't move or react to being attacked by you or Vila in any way. The "recommended" way of completing this mission requires the player to wait for Vila to reach the graveyard (whereupon she endlessly and ineffectually fires at Ukrainian while he and his bodyguards stare off into space) and then drop a nearby tombstone on her. Trying to fight her "normally" will take your entire ammo reserves and then some.

** Averted hardcore in ''Nuclear Strike'', which brazenly uses the actual Kim Jong-Il as one of it's villains.

* {{Qurac}}: The actual country involved in ''Desert Strike'' is never named.